Lessons from the week (3 Sep 2023)

On running long distances, leaving a communication void and three ways of improving

5 lessons from my third half-marathon run

I ran my 3rd half marathon yesterday on 3 Sep 2023 at a time of 1:58:07.
I ran my 1st half marathon on 21 Nov 2010 at a time of 1:59:53.
I ran my 2nd half marathon on 29 Nov 2011 at a time of 2:02:17.

I was thrilled that a 40 year old Harsh beat a 27 and 28 year old Harsh. All else being equal I am fitter now than I was. I think the reason for this is that I have been consistent with my exercises for over a decade. I track everything on this excel sheet.

Here are a few lessons from the run:
(1) Aim for consistency over intensity - More reps. More workouts. More runs. If you turn up every week then over many years you will build a base of physical strength and mental resilience. And when it is time to crank up your effort to dish out intensity you will have the ability to do so. For example - I never prepared for any of my half marathon runs. In fact I only found out about this most recent run the night before at dinner. But since I do at least one 30-minute run every week of nearly 5km, I believed that I can 4x that performance for one day. The performance proved that I was right.

(2) Do it because you want to prove to yourself that you can - My internal dialogue went something like this:

Chill Harsh - why do you want to bring pain and discomfort on yourself? You will be soar for days, you will lose muscle, you don't have electrolyte replenishment for the run. It's a stupid idea.

vs

Daredevil Harsh - do it because it is the harder thing to do. Do it to prove to yourself that you can. Do it to beat your younger self. Are you really fitter than you were in your 20s? Let's find out!

Daredevil Harsh won.

(3) Break down the goal into mini-goals - I broke down the 21 km race into 1 km and 5 km milestones. I told myself that every kilometer I complete, I get to stop and take 10 deep breaths. That was my reward for the effort. Then I broke the 21 km into four mental visual quadrants. When I completed the first 5km I patted myself for reaching it - Well done Harsh! On to quadrant 2. Then when I finished 10km, I rewarded myself by turning the music on. At the 15km mark, my strides were getting shorter and my legs were getting heavier. I stopped, took ten deep breaths, had a sip of water. And started running into the last 6km.

(4) Use music to drive you - When I hit the 20km mark, I looked at my watch. It said 1:52:07. The last km and some had to be finished in under 7 minutes for me to break my previous best. At that point this song started playing. It was just what I needed. I cranked up the volume, put the song on loop and pushed myself towards the finish line. I ran the last and hardest kilometer at a faster pace than the previous 13 km! Music works when you know how to harness its potential.

(5) Long distance running is like building a business - You need to be patient. You need to put in the work. You need to keep inching forward. You have to define milestones and celebrate your achievements along the way. I think entrepreneurs would make good long distance runners.

Communicate even when there is not a need to

Two separate incidents happened last week which highlighted the importance of getting on calls to communicate.

One incident was a call with a person who owed me money. I have been chasing him for the past six months to honor his commitments but after getting silence I fell back on the only option that was left open to me - the law. On the day that the judge accepted the case and summoned the accused, I got a call! I listened as he told me the stressful situation he is in and how he promises to pay back everything that is due. Just that call made me want to help him. I realized that if only he had communicated with me on a consistent basis, I would have worked with him to change the payment terms.

The second incident was business related. I connect with the CEO of one of one of the businesses I run on a bi-weekly basis. That habit stopped in the recent past because data was being shared in a different format every two weeks. After a month of sharing data but not speaking, he asked me why I had cancelled our calls. This miscommunication between us made me put our bi-weekly calls back on the calendar immediately.

I realized that if I do not get on a call with the people that matter, then the void of silence will be left open to interpretation. In other words, instead of controlling the narrative, you will allow the other persons fears create the narrative. Why do you want to leave room for imagination? Even if you have to get on a call for 15 minutes every so often, do it. Human being need that personal touch.

There are only 3 ways of improving

This is another framework that I have learnt from Alex Harmozi. I am learning a lot from him. This framework was written with the context of getting more leads and making more money, but it really applies to anything in life. Here it is:

(1) DO MORE. Do more calls. Do more emails. Do more reading or writing or talking or exercising. Ask yourself how you can leverage every minute to get more done. Can you leverage your team? Can you leverage technology? What is the most you can do? Create benchmarks. And then track these benchmarks to achieve those numbers. I did this exercise with my team and showed them that we were doing only 20% of what we can. In September we aim to do 100% of what we can. What can you do more of?

(2) DO BETTER. Can you personalize the emails? Can you improve the processes? Can you create a better offer that the prospect would feel stupid saying no to? Think about everything that you can do better. Testing helps you get data to make better decisions here.

(3) DO NEW. Can you approach newer markets? Can you open in newer locations? Can you speak to newer investors? Can you start a whole new channel for marketing? If you have mastered one thing, take what you have learnt and master a newer thing.

Everything you do in life can be improved by just following this framework of MORE, BETTER and NEW.

Harsh Batra
LinkedIn

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